Phil

“Don’t give up and stay connected to community. Recovery is a process – not a straight line.”

Phil’s life had been swallowed by addiction. For 15 years, he cycled in and out of prison, in and out of homelessness, and deeper into hopelessness.

One day, sitting on the side of the road, he called his parole officer with a desperate request: “Please arrest me.” Prison, he thought, was better than the life he was living.

“I couldn’t find a job, and I didn’t even know where to start,” Phil recalls. “I didn’t realize there was help. I didn’t realize there were people who cared.”

That changed when he walked through the doors of Gospel Rescue Mission. Surrounded by people who saw his worth, Phil began to believe that God still had a plan for him. “I felt God’s arms wrap around me,” he says. “He wasn’t done with me yet.”

Over the next year in GRM’s recovery program, Phil found stability, purpose, and faith. He graduated into Aftercare, where he began to see just how vital his new community was for long-term sobriety.

Today, Phil is 11 years sober. He works as a Systems Administrator for the City of Tucson—an incredible career that has provided stability and purpose. After 30 years apart, he reconciled with his family, including all five of his siblings, and has spent the past decade rebuilding those relationships. He’s deeply involved in his church, serving on the worship team and through their homeless outreach program.

Michael

“You don’t have to do it on your own. There is help. You don’t have to struggle on your own.”

Michael started using meth when he was very young, and by the time he was in his early twenties, he had already resigned himself to a grim truth: “You never see an old meth head,” he thought. “I knew I was going to die. I didn’t want to die, but I didn’t see any other way forward.” 

Each attempt to start fresh ended the same way—slipping back into old patterns, losing what little he had gained.

When he came to Gospel Rescue Mission, he didn’t just need sobriety—he needed a reason to keep living it. “Boredom was my biggest enemy,” Michael admits. “If I wasn’t working toward something, it was too easy to fall back.”

At GRM, he found more than a program. He found purpose, stability, and a supportive community. With their help, Michael rebuilt his life—grounded in faith, accountability, and service to others.

Today, that life looks radically different. He’s been sober for nine years and works for Cooper Aerial Survey, the same company he joined after transitioning out of recovery, working his way up to assistant production manager—a position that now allows him to work from home. Michael is actively pursuing his Master’s degree, demonstrating his commitment to personal growth and professional success. He and his wife—who runs a nonprofit bringing free dental care to villages in Peru—travel the world together. 

“I never thought I would be doing that,” Michael says. “I scuba dive. We just bought a house. My life is more abundant now than I ever would have dared to imagine.”

WES

“My life was transformed because someone believed in me when I couldn’t believe in myself. Now I get to do that for others every single day.”

Wes spent 20 years trapped in addition. From the time he was a teenager, he couldn’t hold down a job. He slept in Santa Rita Park and, because of addiction, abandoned his two children. 

“I wasn’t sick of life,” Wes recalls, “I was sick of being an addict. I really struggled to get sober – not because I didn’t want to, but because I didn’t know how to.” 

That changed after 5 months in Cochise County Jail. Sober-minded for the first time in years, Wes looked back over two decades of destruction and surrendered fully. When he came to Gospel Rescue Mission, he didn;t just receive instructions on what to do – he was shown how to live differently, and given the support to keep going. 

“Recovery here is about transforming the individual from the inside out,” he says. “I went from hopelessness to hope.” 

Now, Wes has been sober for 23 years. He is married, runs sober living homes, and has worked at Gospel Rescue Mission for 21 years. Today, he serves as our Chief Community Officer – walking alongside people who are in the very same place he once was.